{"id":4750,"date":"2021-11-02T14:21:02","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T18:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.alumni.ncsu.edu\/?p=1054"},"modified":"2024-02-01T16:28:11","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T21:28:11","slug":"a-shot-in-the-arm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2021\/a-shot-in-the-arm\/","title":{"rendered":"A Shot in the Arm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In early August, NC State senior Lilly Fowler got a call she wasn\u2019t expecting. The voice on the other end identified herself as Charlene Wong, chief health policy officer for COVID-19 at the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. \u201cShe goes, \u2018I wanted to tell you, you\u2019ve won a million dollars.\u2019 So I hung up on her,\u201d Fowler says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe calls me again. I\u2019m like \u2018Oh, god. These scammers.\u2019\u201d But it wasn\u2019t a scam. Fowler, who is from East Bend, N.C., was the final winner of the N.C. Summer Cash Drawings, the state\u2019s lottery to encourage people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. It still took another call, a call from Wong to Fowler\u2019s father and a FaceTime in which Wong had to virtually show Fowler the offices of DHHS to prove the legitimacy of Fowler\u2019s win. \u201cI\u2019m like, scammers aren\u2019t buying these large Department of Health and Human Services signs,\u201d Fowler says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vaccine lottery, Fowler concedes, was not a motivator and was not even something she knew about. After taking some time to consider the shot and talking it over with her family, she decided to get vaccinated because she was coming to Raleigh in the fall. Fowler graduated with an associate\u2019s degree from Surry Community College in 2020, transferred to NC State as a junior last year, but ended up taking classes remotely because of COVID. Fall 2021 was her first full semester on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"
Lilly Fowler with her cousin, Kynsley. Photograph courtesy of Lilly Fowler.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lilly Fowler (left) with her girlfriend, Caroline. Photograph courtesy of Lilly Fowler.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n
<\/section>\n\n\n\n

But coming to school wasn\u2019t the only motivating factor. She says the people she loved and their health played an important role in her decision. She considered her grandmothers in East Bend, and her 3-year-old cousin Kynsley, with whom she spends a lot of time. \u201cI don\u2019t want to bring anything back to them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Fowler knew she\u2019d also be traveling back to East Bend on weekends to spend time with her girlfriend, Caroline. \u201cShe said, \u2018Well, I really want you to get it,\u2019\u201d Fowler says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s what Fowler did over the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fowler says she has never once bought a lottery ticket. The business administration major is admittedly frugal. So far, she has committed to doing only one thing with her winnings\u2014take Kynsley to Disney World. \u201cShe loves Elsa and Mickey,\u201d Fowler says. \u201cShe\u2019s not going to remember it, but I\u2019m just going to watch her believe these characters are real.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fowler\u2019s energies instead are on her classes this fall\u2014a digital marketing practicum, an accounting course, a communications class and Spanish\u2014and her internship with the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, where she\u2019s using her passion for marketing to help the state\u2019s tourism and small businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI mean, I haven\u2019t used any of the money,\u201d she says, \u201cso nothing\u2019s really changed in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

In early August, NC State senior Lilly Fowler got a call she wasn\u2019t expecting. The voice on the other end identified herself as Charlene Wong, chief health policy officer for COVID-19 at the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. \u201cShe goes, \u2018I wanted to tell you, you\u2019ve won a million dollars.\u2019 So I hung up on her,\u201d Fowler says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe calls me again. I\u2019m like \u2018Oh, god. These scammers.\u2019\u201d But it wasn\u2019t a scam. Fowler, who is from East Bend, N.C., was the final winner of the N.C. Summer Cash Drawings, the state\u2019s lottery to encourage people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. It still took another call, a call from Wong to Fowler\u2019s father and a FaceTime in which Wong had to virtually show Fowler the offices of DHHS to prove the legitimacy of Fowler\u2019s win. \u201cI\u2019m like, scammers aren\u2019t buying these large Department of Health and Human Services signs,\u201d Fowler says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vaccine lottery, Fowler concedes, was not a motivator and was not even something she knew about. After taking some time to consider the shot and talking it over with her family, she decided to get vaccinated because she was coming to Raleigh in the fall. Fowler graduated with an associate\u2019s degree from Surry Community College in 2020, transferred to NC State as a junior last year, but ended up taking classes remotely because of COVID. Fall 2021 was her first full semester on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"
Lilly Fowler with her cousin, Kynsley. Photograph courtesy of Lilly Fowler.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Lilly Fowler (left) with her girlfriend, Caroline. Photograph courtesy of Lilly Fowler.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n
<\/section>\n\n\n\n

But coming to school wasn\u2019t the only motivating factor. She says the people she loved and their health played an important role in her decision. She considered her grandmothers in East Bend, and her 3-year-old cousin Kynsley, with whom she spends a lot of time. \u201cI don\u2019t want to bring anything back to them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Fowler knew she\u2019d also be traveling back to East Bend on weekends to spend time with her girlfriend, Caroline. \u201cShe said, \u2018Well, I really want you to get it,\u2019\u201d Fowler says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s what Fowler did over the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fowler says she has never once bought a lottery ticket. The business administration major is admittedly frugal. So far, she has committed to doing only one thing with her winnings\u2014take Kynsley to Disney World. \u201cShe loves Elsa and Mickey,\u201d Fowler says. \u201cShe\u2019s not going to remember it, but I\u2019m just going to watch her believe these characters are real.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fowler\u2019s energies instead are on her classes this fall\u2014a digital marketing practicum, an accounting course, a communications class and Spanish\u2014and her internship with the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, where she\u2019s using her passion for marketing to help the state\u2019s tourism and small businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI mean, I haven\u2019t used any of the money,\u201d she says, \u201cso nothing\u2019s really changed in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NC State senior Lilly Fowler was the final winner in the N.C. Summer Cash Drawings vaccine lottery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":1055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-immersive.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-immersive-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"backgroundColor\":\"reynolds_400\",\"subtitle\":\"NC State senior Lilly Fowler was the final winner in the N.C. Summer Cash Drawings vaccine lottery.\",\"caption\":\"\",\"displayCategoryID\":6}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[286,703,722,959,1217],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-4750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-covid-19","tag-lilly-fowler","tag-lottery","tag-poole-college-of-management","tag-vaccine"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":6,"name":"Campus Lens","slug":"campus-lens","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":6,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5112,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4750\/revisions\/5112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4750"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=4750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}